Anurag Thakur clarifies the reason behind Virat Kohli's omission from the ICC Test team of the year

BCCI President Anurag Thakur who was very impressed with Team India’s performance in the recently concluded Test series against England confirmed the reason behind Virat Kohli’s omission from ICC’s Test team despite being in a prolific run-scoring form off late in the longest format of the game. Thakur said that the voting happened in September and the Indian Test captain had made most of his runs after that window. Despite scoring two double centuries in back to back series and bagging the Man of the Series award against England, Kohli missed out on the ICC Test team of the year 2016.

“Unfortunately, Virat Kohli, who has turned into a big player, did not make it to the ICC’s Test Team because voting happens in September window and he made all the runs after this September,” Thakur said. Surprisingly England skipper Alastair Cook has been named the captain of the side despite his horrendous run against Bangladesh and England in the last few months. Along with Cook three other Englishmen also made the cut. Three Australians and a player each from New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka and South Africa make up rest of the team.

Thakur didn’t forget to congratulate the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for making it a rare instance when both Indian bowlers were at the top of the ICC Rankings for bowlers. “I would like to congratulate both of the players for performing tremendously well and guiding the team to repeated victories as well as to the No.1 spot in rankings,” the BCCI chief was quoted by the DNA.

Thakur hoped that Kohli and his team will continue to retain their numero uno status in Tests and achieve greater heights in the coming future. “I hope Team India continue to remain the No. 1 team under the guidance of Virat Kohli. And the way Mahendra Singh Dhoni and then Kohli led the team to victories clearly shows that the team will continue to achieve greater heights in the coming future,” he concluded.